14 passengers shot dead in Pakistan

At least 14 passengers were offloaded from a bus on a highway in Pakistan's Balochistan province and shot dead by unidentified assailants on Thursday, media reports said.

Around 15-20 armed assailants in camouflage uniform reportedly stopped five or six buses travelling between Karachi and Gwadar on the Makran Coastal highway, Dawn news reported.

In the Buzi Top area, the gunmen stopped one bus, checked the identity cards of passengers, then offloaded at least 14 of the 16 of them and shot them, the officials said.

Two passengers managed to escape the massacre and made it to the nearest checkpost. They were shifted to Ormara Hospital for treatment.

Law enforcement personnel reached the spot and launched an investigation into the incident.

The motive behind the killings and the identity of the victims are yet to be ascertained.

A similar incident took place in Balochistan's Mastung area in 2015 when armed men kidnapped about two dozen passengers from two Karachi-bound coaches and killed 19 of them.

Last week, a terror attack targeting the Hazara community in Quetta left at least 20 dead.

--IANS

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